The NXP-Freescale MergeróA $4 Bllion Giant

When complete, the NXP/Freescale merger will build a $4 billion automotive giant that beats out the competition with its size as well as its multi-segment chip portfolio. Of greatest interest is what will the new company do in the advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), a market estimated to reach $3 billion by 2020 by IHS.

There's not that much in the way of product overlap between the two companies, and both entities are highly valued by major OEMs. The merger will provide for leadership across many automotive segments including in-vehicle networking, powertrain, chassis and safety, car entertainment, and keyless access. It also sets up the giant with substantial growth for several years in application processors, audio, radar, vision, secure V2X, and complete car security.

According to the IHS ADAS Semiconductor Market Tracker, the combined companies will target approximately 80% of that $3 billion ADAS market. Specifically, it cites Freescale's processors, MCUs, systems processors (DSPs) and sensors and NXP's strength in networking ASSPs. The new company will have the technology, size and strength to go after the safety application market, including lane departure warning and pedestrian detection and address automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and other autonomous driving systems solutions.

Freescale announced an ASIL-compliant automotive image SoC (S32V) with sensor fusion capabilities. Renesas, TI and Mobileye are focusing on the same marketplace with similar SoCs as seen in the R-Car from Renesas, TDA from Texas Instruments and EyeQ from Mobileye.

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